Yogya

The movie for the previous post is too big 28MB, needs some editing to get it uploaded.

We made it to Jogjakarta, most often called Jogja, and most often spelled the old way Yogya.  Can't tell your Y's from your J's?

On our return from Bali we had an overnight stay in Ketapang, just north of Banyuwangi, on Java (locally spelled and pronounced Jawa) side of the Bali Strait.  The hotel has a beautiful view of the national forest on the Northwest tip of Bali.

A quick couple of train rides with an overnight stay in Surabaya, and we're here in Yogya.

A day trip to Prambanan from here is well worth the time.  Never having seen the antiquities of Europe, I am not able to compare, but visiting these Hindu and Buddhist temples is a wonderful experience.  The Prambanan Complex consists of many temples, and we get private guides (students who study tourism) to explain everything, except the Kama Sutra.  After touring the really big Hindu temple, with mobs of students from packed tour buses (lucky, it seems it was a local holiday), we visit the neighboring Buddhist temple (built to impress a new wife), and we're alone with our private tour guides - really sweet.  The really really sweet part is visiting a temple in the process of reassembly from the last earthquake, and chatting with one of the guys doing it for 30,000Rp/day (about 3USD).  He tells me how he's had 5 kids all of whom died from various problems, explains the level of corruption he experiences, doubts about Allah,...

The day before we toured the Sultans' Palace grounds (The Yellow House), again with a private tour guide, this one a government employee.  Again, really worth the time.  It seems like ever since the Dutch arrived in the 1400's these sultans have capitulated (except the first who the Dutch would beheaded). But it seems to me that the culture of corruption that pervades Indonesia probably has it's roots in the Sultans' survival mechanism.  Anyway we loved it.  You should come.